Assessment of the need for cultural competency training within crisis negotiation training in the State of Arizona

Crisis negotiators in Arizona work with very diverse populations. In addition to large populations of Whites, Hispanics, Native-Americans, and Asians, there are growing refugee populations from over twenty nations. Considering this, there is a surprising lack of information on negotiating with people from different cultures in the literature written for the field. The purpose of this thesis is to determine the attitudes of crisis negotiators in Arizona on the role of culture in negotiating with people who are different from themselves. It seeks to answer this by interviewing crisis negotiators from diverse law enforcement agencies in Arizona. The following questions will be answered: 1) Do crisis negotiators perceive that culture effects their negotiations? 2) Do they currently receive cultural competency training? 3) Do they have a desire for/ or need for cultural competency training? 4) What kind of cultural competency training would be beneficial for them? Based on the responses from the negotiators, I will make recommendations on future training or research that meets their needs and desires in the area of negotiating with those who are culturally different from themselves